Cosmonauts Leave Mir For Link With Salyut

May 6, 1986|By United Press International

MOSCOW — Two Soviet cosmonauts left the orbiting space station Mir, their home for the past 52 days, today to link up with the aging Salyut-7 orbital complex -- the Soviet Union's other permanent space station, the official Soviet news agency Tass said.

Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov, along with half a ton of equipment, departed from the Mir space station aboard the Soyuz T-15 capsule that will ferry them over to their new home on the Salyut-7.

The Soyuz was expected to dock with the Salyut-7 complex Tuesday, Tass said.

Before leaving the Mir, which has been in space since Feb. 20, the two cosmonauts mothballed equipment and set the Soviet's newest space station on automatic.

During their stay, the cosmonauts received two cargo vessels loaded with test equipment and additional ''structures'' for the Mir station, the agency said.

The Salyut-7 has been in space since April 1982. It was nearly lost after its main power system failed, but another team of cosmonauts managed to bring it back to life in June 1985.

The Salyut space station has been operating on automatic since November. The crew was expected to retrieve some experiments and equipment left behind before returning to Earth.

Tass said the systems aboard all three spacecraft were functioning normally.